Thursday, December 29, 2011

Catholic Church Playing The "I Can't Discriminate" Victim Card

Dan Gill for The New York Times

Catholic Charities turned away Rick Wade, left, and

Tim Kee of Marion, Ill., when the couple tried to adopt a child three years ago.

The Catholic Church has decided to end their foster care and adoption services in the state of Illinois. The state passed a civil unions law and blocked taxpayer funding for the Catholic charities for these services if they continued the practice of discriminating against gay and lesbian couples.

The catholic church wanted to receive taxpayer funds and block adoptions for gay and lesbian couples.

Via The New York Times:“In the name of tolerance, we’re not being tolerated,” said Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, Ill., a civil and canon lawyer who helped drive the church’s losing battle to retain its state contracts for foster care and adoption services.

Now they are crying victim. Wow! So, their thinking is "we want to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples...and we want the government to pay us to do it".

Critics of the church argue that no group has a constitutional right to a government contract, especially if it refuses to provide required services.

But Anthony R. Picarello Jr., general counsel and associate general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, disagreed. “It’s true that the church doesn’t have a First Amendment right to have a government contract,” he said, “but it does have a First Amendment right not to be excluded from a contract based on its religious beliefs.”

Uh, no. If your religious beliefs involve discriminating against gays and lesbians who actually pay taxes, unlike the Catholic church, I would think the government would be required to specifically exclude you from a taxpayer funded contracts.

Tim Kee, a teacher in Marion, Ill., who was turned away by Catholic Charities three years ago when he and his longtime partner, Rick Wade, tried to adopt a child, said: “We’re both Catholic, we love our church, but Catholic Charities closed the door to us. To add insult to injury, my tax dollars went to provide discrimination against me.”